The process of transferring an invalid patient from a hospital bed to another bed surface or wheel chair in a hospital, nursing home, or home or assisting such a patient to get into a standing position often involves more than one person and is labor intensive and can be costly. It is occasionally a source of injury to the patient, nurses, or attendants who are involved in the means of patient transfer.
In addition, the process of changing bed sheets is an another labor intensive and often unpleasant task, frequently involving nurses or attendants in a hospital, nursing home, home, or maids in a hotel and can be costly.
Further, a relatively immobile patient in a sitting position in a hospital type bed which has its back section raised, often slides down toward the feet end of the bed and requires an attendant's or nurse's assistance to be raised back to a normal sitting position.
Further, other methods of transfer from a bed to another bed or surface often involve the person's body being moved over a hard or uncomfortable surface to a mattress or other surface at least during a portion of the transfer process. Another object of this invention is to provide means to accomplish the transfer from one bed to another bed or surface without the patient's body having to pass over such hard or uncomfortable surfaces(s).
Further, bed sheets often become rumpled or bunched in regions under and alongside a patient lying in bed making it uncomfortable for the patient. Another objective of this invention is to provide means to accomplish the straightening or rumple removal of the bed sheet.
The prior art associated with achieving the above objectives has almost exclusively involved the movement of the person or patient laterally or sideways across a bed. Although certain embodiments of the present invention involve lateral motion, it is a principal objective to provide other embodiments which move the patient longitudinally (i.e., lengthwise) with respect to a bed.
Principal objectives of this present invention are to provide a novel arrangement of parts or attachments which can be added and attached to existing or new beds or designed into new beds which will significantly assist in (A) the comfortable transfer of a person or patient from one bed to another bed or surface; (B) the changing of bed sheets on a bed; (C) the raising of a person who has slipped down from the raised back of a hospital bed, toward the top of the bed; (D) the tightening and straightening of the sheet on which a patient is reclining; (E) the positioning of a patient such that it reduces the manual work required to get the patient out of bed and (F) to perform (i.e., using certain longitudinal transfer embodiments of the invention) all of the above objectives without requiring the absence of bed side rails or other mechanical impediments alongside the bed. Other objectives will become evident from the description of the invention herein.